From Jeremy Whittle in Paris.
Which seems like a good moment for me to step away from the blog. It’s been a pleasure. Bye!
The Slovenian flag is raised, and Zdravljica, the country’s national anthem, rings out, as the sun sets on Paris and on this year’s Tour de France. He’s asked to give a speech, and this is what he says:
This is incredible, standing here in Paris, on the top. I never thought of that. It’s been an amazing three-week advanture. I have to thank everyone who was involved in all the preparations, all the hard work in the team, in my family, everyone who supported me. It was a really amazing three weeks on the road, with such amazing fans. They encouraged me a lot, and I cannot describe how I’m feeling right now.
Pogacar’s back! This time he’s wearing yellow, and raises a celebratory cuddly lion aloft in triumph.
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Pougacar comes back out again. This time he’s wearing the white jersey for best young rider. He stands on the podium, waves his flowers around briefly, and then he’s off again for another costume change.
Tadej Pogacar comes out to officially take the polka dot jersey. He can’t hang around, though, because he’s got to quickly change shirt, facemask and cap and come out for another presentation.
The ceremony is in full flow amid the Paris gloaming. Sam Bennett has been handed some green glowers and a green vase to go with his shirt.
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Tadej Pogacar gives an interview. It is his 22nd birthday tomorrow, and he’s asked if this is the best possible birthday present. “I’m not really a fan of my birthdays,” he says, which makes them the only thing he isn’t extremely enthusiastic about at the moment:
It’s unbelievable. It’s really crazy. Even if I would not win here, if I had come second or last, it would be still nice to be here. But this is the top of the top. I cannot describe this feeling in words. Today was very special, special moments with my teammates. Finally some time to talk with them on the bike, not just going full gas every day. A lot of respect for all the riders. Every single one of them congratulates me today, and I’m really thankful. This sport is really amazing.
We have a report for you:
Sam Bennett has a chat:
Man. I can’t tell you how excited I am. Green jersey, the Champs Elysee, world championships of sprinting. I never thought I’d ever be able to win this stage, and to do it in green is so special. And to do it with my dream team, the way the boys rode all day. It’s just so amazing, the feeling. I can’t thank everyone enough.
Oh man. All the suffering through the mountains, so worth it now. All the years trying to make it. I tell you, it took me so long to get here. I’m just going to enjoy every moment of it.
We were riding on the front coming in, and I was feeling the legs a bit. I thought, I’m messing this up a bit. And Dries [Devenyns] came over and said, ‘Do you want to go back with Michael {Morkow], it’s a little bit easier in the bunch. And I was a little bit nervous because the last time I was on the Champs Elysees someone came down in the final straight and broke their collarbone. So I was nervous about riding in the bunch because it’s really fast. But I went back. I thought I had one lap to go, then they said on the radio ‘two laps to go’, so I had time to recover.
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The top five in the general classification at the end of the Tour de France looks like this:
- Tadej Pogacar UAE Team Emirates 87h 20’ 05”
- Primoz Roglic Jumbo-Visma +0’ 59”
- Richie Porte Trek-Segafredo +3’ 30”
- Mikel Landa Bahrain-McLaren +5’ 58”
- Enric Mas Movistar +6’ 07”
The first 10 finishers on stage 21 were as follows:
- Sam Bennett Deceuninck-Quick Step 2h 53’ 32”
- Mads Pedersen Trek-Segafredo
- Peter Sagan Bora Hansgrohe
- Alexander Kristoff UAE Team Emirates
- Elia Viviani Cofidis
- Wout van Aert Jumbo-Visma
- Caleb Ewan Lotto Soudal
- Hugo Hofstetter Israel Start-Up Nation
- Bryan Coquard B&B Hotels-Vital Concept
- Max Walscheid NTT Pro Cycling
Tadej Pogacar wins the 2020 Tour de France!
Tadej Pogacar crosses the line safely, tuft of hair still poking through his helmet, to secure his victory!
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Sam Bennett wins on the Champs Elysee!
Bennett destroys the field to win the final stage by a length and add a little extra lustre to his green jersey!
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500m to go: Michael Morkov leads, but it’s anyone’s race ...
1km to go: The teams have splintered now, as the sprinters position themselves at the front. Sagan and Bennett are both there, poised.
2.5km to go: Sunweb take control at the front for a bit. Then Sam Bennett’s Deceuninck-Quick Step have a go.
Watching this last lap can’t help thinking this has been one of the best Tours I’ve seen
— William Fotheringham (@willfoth) September 20, 2020
3.5km to go: The front three is now a one, with Max Schachmann the last to be caught.
5km to go: It’s all but over for the front three. Their lead is down to six seconds.
7km to go: The bell rings. Into the final lap they go!
7km to go: NTT Pro Cycling have taken over at the front, Michael Gogl first among them. The leading four have become a three, with Connor Swift not quite living up to his name and falling back.
9km to go: George Bennett is at the front of the peloton, the first of four Jumbo-Visma riders. The front four lead by 12 seconds.
10km to go: They have cycled 3,474km, give or take a couple of hundred metres. There are just 10 to go. What drama lies ahead?
12km to go: The gap is shrinking now, and just dipped under 10sec for a moment. Jumbo-Visma have assembled at the front of the peloton.
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14km to go: Michael Schar stops while his bike gets looked at. Parisian cobbles are a bicycle’s equivalent of a cold Tuesday night in Stoke.
15km to go: They have obviously severely restricted public access to the race route in Paris today, which seems eminently sensible even if it’s a bit weird to have more supporters lining the roads in Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche than in the actual capital. The front four lead by 12 seconds, surely not enough.
19km to go: Tim Declercq is at the front of the peloton, pain showing on his face as he tries to chase the leaders down.
20km to go: They cross the finish line for the sixth time. The front four lead by 15 seconds.
25km to go: The lead remains at around 20sec as they go round the Arc de Triomphe. The circuit is around 7km long, so they’ve got three-and-a-bit goes left.
Welcome to Paris! #TDF2020
— Astana Pro Team (@AstanaTeam) September 20, 2020
📷 @GettySport pic.twitter.com/Un6G4oxvgl
27km to go: Edward Theuns goes down! He doesn’t stay down, and after a quick bike swap he’s back on his way, but with a few scrapes and tears.
28km to go: I wish this breakaway group well, but I think I read that it’s 15 years since the final stage wasn’t decided by a group sprint.
32km to go: That four-man breakaway, composed of Pierre-Luc Périchon, Max Schachmann, Greg Van Avermaet and Connor Swift, has a lead of about 18sec and holding steady.
35km to go: Bennett finished that intermediate sprint fifth, behind Pierre-Luc Périchon, Max Schachmann, Greg Van Avermaet and Connor Swift.
38km to go: Sam Bennett’s has not just effectively clinched the green jersey, but mathematically:
Irish Champion @Sammmy_Be has mathematically secured the #TDF2020 green jersey after picking up more valuable points at the intermediate sprint in Paris.#WayToRide #TheWolfpackNeverGivesUp
— Deceuninck-QuickStep (@deceuninck_qst) September 20, 2020
Photo: @BeelWout pic.twitter.com/yCo1gBBJiA
40km to go: Peter Sagan mounts no challenge for the intermediate sprint, and with that his chance of clinching the green jersey today effectively ends.
41km to go: There are four riders slightly ahead of the peloton, currently led by Greg van Avermaet. Britain’s Connor Swift is also involved.
43km to go: No break at the front, but Julian Alaphilippe is hanging off the back waiting for Bob Jungels, who he will presumably help back to the main group, and also for a bike change, it seems.
45km to go: Back round the Arc de Triomphe. The finish line of the day’s intermediate sprint is 5km away.
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52km to go: Round the Arc de Triomphe they go. It’s like an open-top bus tour of Paris, the second half of this stage.
54km to go: Racing! Neilson Powless is first to go, but he hasn’t gone very far.
54km to go: They have just crossed the finish line, for the first time. Eight to go.
57km to go: They go past the Louvre, and are about to hit the central circuit, around which they will go nine times.
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63km to go: They are on Boulevard Lefebvre, named after Francois Lefebvre, a soldier type who died precisely 200 years ago last Monday. I have no idea what to do with my mouth to make the letter V come after the letter B, particularly with an R to follow.
66km to go: They are now officially in Paris.
72km to go: Pogacar is setting all sorts of records this year. It’s nearly 40 years since anyone younger than him wore the yellow jersey at any stage of a Tour de France (Belgium’s Eric Vanderaerden in 1983, since you ask. He went on to win the green jersey three years later).
1st 🇸🇮 Slovenian to win @LeTour
— letourdata (@letourdata) September 20, 2020
1st rider to dominate the overall, KOM and Best Young Rider standings in the same edition
1st rookie to win overall since 1983
Youngest winner since 1904@TamauPogi wrote history on #TDF2020 #TDFdata | @TeamUAEAbuDhabi pic.twitter.com/MbqwHslbjK
78km to go: They’ve just gone past Versailles. They’ll soon hit the Forest of Meudon, the last patch of green before they hit Paris proper.
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82km to go: Chaos on Eurosport, where the poor chap on commentary tries to hand over to Bradley Wiggins, and then tries to hand over to John, and neither of them respond. The perils of live broadcasting there.
88km to go: On now to Fontenay-le-Fleury. It’s actually election day in Fontenay-le-Fleury, and the Yvelines area in general, after the resignation of their MP, Nadia Hai. The Tour and consequent traffic chaos won’t help with that, you’d have thought. In other news, I apologise for the desperation that liveblogging a race without racing has forced upon me.
95km to go: They reach Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche. Who is Saint Nom, I hear you ask? Well, there is no Saint Nom. It’s actually named after Saint Nonne, about whom I’m afraid I know little. I can tell you that she was from Wales. Bretèche comes from Breit Eiche, German for big oak. Why it’s not just called Saint-Nonne-La-Bretèche I do not know.
99km to go: 3,371km down, 99km to go. Down to double figures.
102km to go: They were due to arrive in Cespieres at somewhere between 3.32pm and 3.36pm BST. They finally make it at 3.51pm. Nobody’s in any kind of hurry (yet).
106km to go: Clément Russo was first over that category four climb. They now go through Les Alluets-le-Roi, about which I can tell you very little. I’ve had a look at the recent news on the town’s website, and the best I can do is that their church has a 315-year-old bell called Marie Anne Andrée which was taken away for servicing and renovation on Friday. It rings in D#.
111km to go: They have just gone through Aubergenville, site of the Flins Renault factory, the car maker’s largest factory in France. Last year it produced 64,061 all-electric Zoe cars, 41,931 Clios, and in an unexpected twist 54,118 Nissan Micras.
113km to go: As anyone who has watched the final stage of a Tour de France before will know, there’s unlikely to be a great deal of action until the closing stages. There is a category four climb upcoming, though, in about 4km.
117km to go: When the going gets tough the tuft gets going.
118km to go: There’s one tuft of hair poking up through Pogacar’s helmet. Someone really should tell him that he’s going to be spending the majority of the day when more photographs will be taken of him than any other day of his life with a comedy hair fail.
“Whilst its a huge pity that Geraint Thomas hasn’t been jostling for the title, it is so good that a team other than Sky/Ineos has taken the tour by storm this year,” writes Andrew Benton. “The Sky/Ineos victory train was getting pretty boring. Hopefully next year the competition will be more open still, with this year’s having broken Ineos’s dominance. Dave ‘Egan-his-face’ Brailsford has done massive work for the UK in cycling over the last decade, but I wonder if the loss of momentum will affect him and the Ineos team in the long run.”
121km to go: There was apparently some talk about how the Tour could mark solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement today. As Jeremy Whittle wrote in yesterday’s report:
There has been discussion too of how to react to the Black Lives Matter movement, with the only black rider in the peloton, Kevin Reza, becoming increasingly voluble on cycling’s lack of diversity as the race wore on. Discussions are ongoing within leading teams and riders on how best to respond to an issue that, after years being swept under the carpet, is now out in the open.
It appears that the conclusion was that they wouldn’t mark it at all. On Eurosport the commentary team express their disappointment/regret/anger.
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122km to go: And they’re off! Racing has begun on the 21st and final stage of the 2020 Tour de France. Today’s stage looks something like this:
122+3km to go: More photo opportunities, as first the five Slovenians - Tadej Pogacar, Primoz Roglic, Matej Mohoric, Luka Mezgec and Jan Polanc - gather at the front, and then the six members of UAE-Team Emirates link arms.
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122+4km to go: Primoz Roglic puts an arm around Pogacar and smiles for the cameras, with apparent warmth. It is admirable that he is able to do so, I can’t imagine how painful yesterday must have been for him.
122+6km to go: They are rolling gently through Mantes-la-Jolie, hometown of Arsenal’s Nicolas Pépé (also notable for other reasons).
It felt like an all-too human ride from Rog rather than a super-human effort from Pog yesterday @Simon_Burnton. Perhaps we've underestimated the strain of leading this most singular of #TdFs.
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) September 20, 2020
Those on (and off) the bikes are all winners in Paris. Chapeau tout-le-monde!
The riders are ready for the depart fictif, with Tadej Pogacar wearing yellow for the first and obviously most important time. Here’s Jeremy Whittle on yesterday’s action:
Hello world!
Well, they actually did it. The 2020 Tour de France ends today, with no end of drama in the actual race and mercifully little away from it.
Tadej Pogacar’s performance in yesterday’s extraordinary time trial has, but for a few dotted i’s and crossed t’s, sealed a stunning win for him and made his apparently glory-bound compatriot look more like Secondoz Roglic. Pogacar also holds the polka dot jersey as the most successful climber, but the drama and potential last-day intrigue is in the race for the green jersey for leading the points classification, which Peter Sagan has won every time he has finished the Tour - seven times in eight years, all told. At the start of the last day Sagan sits second, 55 points behind Ireland’s Sam Bennett, which means he could potentially still win if the Irishman struggles and he scoops significant points in the day’s two sprints (though really Bennett, who has already more than tripled his points haul on the only other occasion he finished the tour in 2016, only needs to cycle sensibly, track the Slovakian, and look forward to the presentation of his €25,000 cheque in Paris).
Anyway, enough from me - here’s William Fotheringham:
French headline writers love to adapt the sentence used on level crossings by the national rail company to warn that if the red lights keep flashing, another train may be coming. The 2020 Tour de France is a landmark edition in various ways, but with Tadej Pogacar snatching a last-gasp, unlikely win from Primoz Roglic on Saturday, the old level-crossing cliche, un train peut en cacher un autre, could sum up the past three weeks: one Slovenian can come in the slipstream of another. Nailing first and second in the biggest bike race in the world is a huge step for one of the smallest cycle racing nations, one with a population of two million people, which has been independent for less than 30 years.
Much more here:
